Fans Forum Recap

28 February 2016

Summary of Thursday night's Fans Forum.

THE Shrimps held a fans forum on Thursday evening with a the Board of Directors meeting a large number of fans at the Globe Arena.

Chairman, Peter McGuigan, was the first to address the audience and revealed the club are in talks about securing a much-needed cash boost at the Globe Arena and revealed that the club's FA Cup exits and several postponed games this year had cost the club in the region of £250,000.

Mr McGuigan said the club was actively looking for investment and hoped to have some good news shortly.

He said: “We need fresh investment or investors to take the club to the next level.

“We’re talking to one potential investor and have two or three others waiting on the sidelines."

“I am confident we can get it done in the next two months."

“We’ll keep everyone posted as best we can but some of it will be private and confidential.”

The Shrimps were without a home game on a Saturday between the end of October and the middle of January something which has hit manager Jim Bentley’s ability to bring in players since the turn of the year.

Mr McGuigan said: “The difference between a Saturday and a Tuesday is that you get around 50 per cent of what you get on a Saturday.

“A big blow was the FA Cup replay that we lost (4-2 to Dagenham & Redbridge) and that cost us over £100,000.

“Then we had two matches postponed due the storms and lost hospitality money on the power cuts. With the Portsmouth game that all cost us £120,000.

“When you sit down on January 1 that’s around £250,000 we haven’t got.

“That’s a big, big number for a club of our size.”

Mr McGuigan is however confident that with the aid of a new bumper TV deal for the Premier League, which will see money filter down the Football League, that the club can break even in the next couple of years.

He said: “It’s very, very tough for Morecambe FC to break even purely on the football side."

“We haven’t got a final number on the new TV deal but indications are that we are looking at a healthy increase for the next 3 seasons."

“In two or three years we’re confident we can almost break even with average crowds around 2,000.”

Mr McGuigan also said that another one of the club’s big deals, with Shanghai Clever in China, is still on the table despite a lack of visible movement since the initial announcement at the end of 2014.

He said: “China has had a dip and we’re feeling the affect of that.

“I’m sure people have read about the Manchester City deal with China and that took three years of David Cameron and George Osborne talking to the Chinese Premier and Vice-Premier.

“We’ve been at it 18 months and I believe one day it will still happen.

“We don’t need any money from there to be financially stable.

“It’s investment in the bricks and mortar that will help us do that.”

The Shrimps board answered a host of questions on topics such as the facilities for fans as the Globe and boss Jim Bentley spoke about the season and his hopes for next season.